141: Spiritual Father in the Desert Tradition

Scope and Content

This file includes documents allowing or banning publication of Merton's essays, books, and introductions to others' books. The standard procedure was to have him submit these works to two censors (who were to remain anonymous). If they saw nothing of d

Biography

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Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.

Series List

Series Number	Series Name	Total Records
1	A Dream at Arles on the Night of the Mistral	1
2	A Messenger from the Horizon	1
3	A Picture of Lee Ying	1
4	A Practical Program for Monks	1
5	Absurdity in Sacred Decoration	3
6	Active and Contemplative Orders	2
7	Advent Mystery	1
8	Advice to a Young Prophet	1
9	Alone with God	1
10	An Elegy for Ernest Hemingway	1
11	An Elegy for Five Old Ladies	5
12	And So Goodbye to Cities	1
13	And the Children of Birmingham	1
14	Apologies to an Unbeliever	2
15	Approach to Creativity	1
16	Art and Worship	19
17	Artist Soul - Roger Durey [book by Dom André Malet; translated from the French by Mother Mary St. Thomas (of Tyburn)]	1
18	Ascent to Truth	23
19	Ash Wednesday	3
20	Atlas Watches Every Evening	2
21	Attente dans le silence: le père Marie-Joseph Cassant, O. Cist. S. O., by Marie-Étienne Chenevière with preface by Merton	1
22	Balanced Life of Prayer	4
23	Baptism in the Forest [introduction to anthology, "Mansions of the Spirit: Essays in Religion and Literature"]	1
24	Baroque Gravure	2
25	Barth's Dream [included in book "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander"]	1
26	Basic Principles of Monastic Spirituality	2
27	Behavior of Titans	1
28	Black Revolution and Cold War [unpublished book in this form, see also "Seeds of Destruction"]	6
29	Black Revolution: Letters to a White Liberal [included in book "Seeds of Destruction"]	2
30	Blessed Are the Meek: the Roots of Christian Nonviolence	1
31	Bread in the Wilderness	4
32	Carmelite Sanctity	2
33	Chant to Be Used in Processions around a Site with Furnaces	2
34	Christian Action in World Crisis [part of unpublished "Black Revolution and Cold War"]	4
35	Christian Ethics and Nuclear War [part of unpublished "Black Revolution and Cold War"]	19
36	Christian in World Crisis [book, published as "Redeeming the Time"]	1
37	Christian Life of Prayer [early draft section of "Contemplative Prayer"]	3
38	Christian Perfection [article for "The Catholic Encyclopedia for School and Home"]	3
39	Christianity and Mass Movements	1
40	Christmas Devotion	2
41	Cistercian Contemplatives	3
42	City of God by St. Augustine, preface for the Modern Library Edition by Thomas Merton	1
43	Classic Chinese Thought	1
44	Clement of Alexandria: Selections from the Protreptikos	1
45	Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander	2
46	Contemplation	1
47	Contemplation and the Priesthood	1
48	Contemplation in a Rocking Chair	1
49	Death of a Trappist	2
50	Disputed Questions	5
51	Early Legend	1
52	Easter: The New Life	5
53	Edifying Cables or Familiar Liturgies of Misunderstanding [book, published as "Cables to the Ace or Familiar Liturgies of Misunderstanding"]	2
54	Elegy for James Thurber	1
55	English Mystics	4
56	Exile Ends in Glory	1
57	Faith and Violence	2
58	Few Questions - Fewer Answers	1
59	First and Last Thoughts [preface to "A Thomas Merton Reader"]	1
60	Gethsemani: The Life of Praise	1
61	Gloss of the Sin of Ixion	2
62	Good Samaritan	2
63	Grace's House	1
64	Hagia Sophia	1
65	Herakleitos the Obscure	1
66	Hermit Life	1
67	Homily on Mary	1
68	Human Way Out, The [preface to book, "Breakthrough to Peace"]	2
69	Humanity of Christ in Monastic Prayer	1
70	In Search of a Yogi, by Denys Rutledge [preface]	2
71	Integrity	1
72	Is Mysticism Normal?	1
73	Jesuits in China	2
74	Jorge Carrera Andrade	1
75	Last of the Fathers	5
76	Laudate Dominum [sound recording]	2
77	Let the Poor Man Speak	1
78	Letter to Pablo Antonio Cuadra Concerning Giants	4
79	Letters in Time of Crisis	1
80	Life and Holiness	2
81	Light in Darkness	1
82	Liturgy and Spiritual Personalism	3
83	Living Bread	1
84	Loretto and Gethsemani	1
85	Love Winter When the Plant Says Nothing	2
86	Macarius the Younger and Macarius and the Pony	1
87	Machine Gun in the Fallout Shelter	2
88	Miscellaneous Correspondence Concerning Censorship	14
89	Monastic Peace	5
90	Monk in the Diaspora	1
91	Morte d'Urban, by J.F. Powers [book review]	1
92	Mount Athos	1
93	Mystery of the Church in St. Ignatius of Antioch (Church and Bishop in St. Ignatius of Antioch)	3
94	Mystics and Zen Masters	4
95	Name of the Lord	1
96	Nativity Kerygma	2
97	New Man	5
98	New Seeds of Contemplation	11
99	Night Flowering Cactus	1
100	No Man Is an Island	4
101	Notes for a Philosophy of Solitude	5
102	Notes on Art and Worship	3
103	Notes on Sacred Art	3
104	Notes on the Lord's Prayer [book foreword]	1
105	O Sweet Irrational Worship	1
106	On Remembering Monsieur Delmas	1
107	Original Child Bomb	2
108	Pasternak, Boris (The Pasternak Affair in Perspective, and Boris Pasternak and the People with Watch Chains)	6
109	Peace in the Post-Christian Era	5
110	Peace: Christian Duties and Perspectives	5
111	Portait of Peter Damian	1
112	Postulant's Guide	1
113	Prayer for Peace	1
114	Présence a Dieu et a soi meme, by Fr. François de Sainte-Marie, O.C.D.	1
115	Primacy of Contemplation	1
116	Primative Carmelite Ideal	3
117	Prometheus	5
118	Prophetic Ambiguities: Milton and Camus	1
119	Rain and the Rhinoceros	1
120	Reflections on the Character and Genius of Fenelon	1
121	Russian Mystics, by Sergius Bolshakoff with a preface by Thomas Merton	1
122	Sacred Art and the Spiritual Life (Sacred Art and Religion)	2
123	Saint John of the Ladder	2
124	Saints for Now, by Clare Boothe Luce with an essay by Merton regarding St. John of the Cross	8
125	Seasons of Celebration	2
126	Secular Journal	16
127	Seeds of Contemplation	2
128	Seeking God	1
129	Selections from Gandhi, selected and with an introduction by Thomas Merton	3
130	Seven Archaic Images	2
131	Sign of Jonas	18
132	Signed Confession of Crimes against the State	1
133	Some Poems of Raissa Maritain	2
134	Song for Nobody	1
135	Song for the Death of Averroes	2
136	Song: If You Seek	1
137	Soul of the Apostolate	3
138	Spirit of simplicity	3
139	Spiritual Direction [article for the New Catholic Encyclopedia]	1
140	Spiritual Direction	1
141	Spiritual Father in the Desert Tradition	2
142	Spiritual Life	1
143	Target Equals City	5
144	Tears of the Blind Lions	2
145	The Fall	1
146	The Moment of Truth	1
147	The Moslems' Angel of Death: Algeria 1961	1
148	The Ox Mountain Parable	1
149	There Has to Be a Jail for Ladies	1
150	Third Spiritual Alphabet, by Francisco de Osuna [book review by Merton]	1
151	Thoughts in Solitude	8
152	To Alphonso Cortes	1
153	Tower of Babel	4
154	Trappist Cistercian Salve Regina (Hail, Holy Queen) [meditation on the text]	1
155	Trappists Go to Utah	1
156	Tribute to Greatness	4
157	Two Chinese Classics	5
158	Universe as Epiphany	2
159	Virginity and Humanism in the Fathers	1
160	Vocation to Solitude	4
161	Waters of Siloe	1
162	Way of Chuang Tzu	1
163	Way of Perfection	1
164	What Are These Wounds?	1
165	What Is Contemplation?	1
166	What Is Meditation?	1
167	Why Some Look Up to Planets and Heroes	1
168	Wisdom in Emptiness: A Dialogue between Daisetz T. Suzuki and Thomas Merton	1
169	Wisdom of the Desert	6

Container List

Series#	Date	From/To	First Lines	Pub ✓	Notes
	y/m/d	Merton		Scan ✉
Series 141 #1. «All Series«	1966/05/08 (#01)	TLS from Morson, John, Fr. / to James Fox	Please excuse me for troubling you with a problem arising out of the writings of your Father Louis.		"The Spiritual Father in the Desert Tradition" [essay] «detailed view»
Series 141 #2. «All Series«	1966/05/08 (#02)	transcript from Gabriel, Fr., O.C.S.O. / to Déodat Dewilde	Please excuse me for troubling you with a problem arising out of the writings of your Father Louis.		"The Spiritual Father in the Desert Tradition" [essay] / [transcript of a letter dated April 5, 1966 or May 4, 1966, from Fr. Gabriel, a Trappist censor from the Abbey of Citeaux, to Dom Déodat Dewilde (elsewhere Dom Deodatus De Wilde)] «detailed view»

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The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Series 141, Spiritual Father in the Desert Tradition

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Scope and Content

Biography

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